Intel Case

In all industries revolving around technology, it is seemingly impossible for any one company to be "top dog" in their respective fields for anything longer than a decade.  The rate at which significant changes happens is at dizzying pace (as Mr. Moore's Law would point out) and brilliant new products/innovations seem to pop out of any given garage or basement.  Having said that, Intel manage to be top dog for two decades.

You can't talk about Intel's dominance without talking about Andy Grove.  A dick, a "neat freak", a dictator... and a damn good manager.  In an industry where holding idle for even a brief moment can have crucial consequences, Grove kept the pedal to the floor.  "Only the paranoid survive." Grove said, and those on-board with him would buy into his philosophy and keep propelling the company forward.

You want to talk about thinking outside of the box?  Intel got people to think about something inside the box.  At a time when people only cared about the IBM, Compaq or Dell stamp on the outside of their computer "boxes", Intel came out and branded their microprocessors (think "Intel Inside" and that catchy little jingle).  Since their products performance backed up the hype, people started demanding that their PCs have an Intel chip in it.  Who the hell knew an AMD chip was or did... or better yet, didn't do.  Intel was able to be so damn successful because they could talk the talk, and their R&D would develop the products that would walk the walk.